


now i'm blue, as blue as can be

by bashfulcreature



Category: Set It Off (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Makeup, Maxx wears makeup and Cody has a gay crisis, This is kind of inspired by the Rock Sound cover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 20:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18612067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bashfulcreature/pseuds/bashfulcreature
Summary: Then it’s Maxx and Zach’s turns, who get their makeup done while Dan and Cody head to the changing rooms to put on the outfits the photographer gave them. They’re cool outfits, all monochrome and sleek to contrast with the bold eye looks they’ve been given. Cody feels good. He looks good.And then Maxx walks out of the makeup room and straight up to Cody. He’s smiling, and his mouth is shiny and pink - gloss, Cody thinks for a split second, before his eyes travel up and he looks into Maxx’s eyes.





	now i'm blue, as blue as can be

Cody wakes up buzzing with nerves and excitement. Today is photoshoot day for their  _ Rock Sound _ cover. They’re going to be on the fucking  _ cover _ of a magazine, with the bundles and the special merch and the whole fucking shindig.

 

All of them are too nervous to eat breakfast, sitting quietly at the kitchen table as they drink coffee and pretend they’re not absolutely shitting themselves. Maxx looks especially anxious, fingers drumming against his lap as he worries his bottom lip between his teeth. He always  _ seems _ fine in front of a camera, good at acting cool and collected, but over the years Cody’s learned to detect the subtle signals of anxiousness. He can almost see worry swirling behind Maxx’s eyes.

 

So, instead of sitting at the front of the car like he normally would, Cody goes to sit at the back, next to Maxx. Dan doesn’t say anything when Cody opens the back door instead of the passenger, silently nodding when Cody jerks his chin towards Maxx. Dan knows that Cody is good at calming down Maxx’s anxiety.

 

They listen to Paramore as Zach drives them to the studio. Maxx is on his phone, smiling at his screen. He sometimes shows Cody what he’s looking at and it’s always a cute picture of an animal.

 

“It’s so cute, right?” Maxx says as Cody peers down at a video of a little pig playing in a kiddie pool.   
  


Cody looks up at Maxx’s face. He’s smiling, lips curling upwards in the corners, and his hair is all over the place because the front window is open. He looks so pretty, with his pink cheeks and the crow’s feet beside his eyes.

 

“Yeah, so cute,” Cody answers, suddenly a little breathless. He catches Zach’s eyes in the rear view mirror and Zach gives him a knowing look. Cody can only shrug. What can he say, Maxx is one of the prettiest people he’s ever seen. He’s not denying it.

 

Cody turns back towards Maxx and reaches out to squeeze his leg, close to his knee.

 

“You okay?” He asks, and Maxx nods with a small smile.

 

Instead of pulling his hand back, Cody leaves it there, on Maxx’s knee. It’s a simple gesture but Cody hopes it’ll reassure Maxx a little, remind him that Cody is there for him.

 

Minutes pass and Maxx’s worry seems to ease a little. He isn’t drumming his fingers against his thigh anymore, instead chatting with Dan about some movie they watched last night. Cody can’t even remember what it was, because Maxx was eating ice cream and it was really fucking distracting, so he focuses on looking out of the window instead of looking at Maxx. Again.

 

\--

 

An hour later, he’s getting his makeup done with Dan. Zach and Maxx are next because there are only two makeup artists, but it seems that they’re getting eyeshadow done and it’s taking a while.

 

“We’re going for a blue look, to match the Midnight vibe” says Claire, one of the makeup artists. Cody can only smile and nod - they’d agreed on the makeup when they first started talking to _Rock Sound_ about the cover, and it’s too late to back down now. Plus, Cody can’t deny that he’s a little curious about makeup. Fans send him their recreations of SIO songs with makeup sometimes, and it’s always beautiful and intricate. Makeup seems fun.

 

They have to keep their eyes closed for most of the time, then, so Cody doesn’t get to see what he looks like until the very end. The blue around his eyes is striking, bringing out his freshly dyed hair. He looks… he looks good.

 

Then it’s Maxx and Zach’s turns, who get theirs done while Dan and Cody head to the changing rooms to put on the outfits the photographer gave them. They’re cool outfits, all monochrome and sleek to contrast with the bold eye looks they’ve been given. Cody feels good. He looks good.

 

And then Maxx walks out of the makeup room and straight up to Cody. He’s smiling, and his mouth is shiny and pink - gloss, Cody thinks for a split second, before his eyes travel up and he looks into Maxx’s eyes.

 

He looks - he looks fucking breathtaking, blue artfully smeared across his lids, and, when he blinks, specks of glitter catch the light and seem to dance across his skin.

 

Cody gapes for a good ten seconds, jaw slack, and Maxx just fucking stands there, with his stupid pink cheeks and pink lips and coy smile. He knows he looks good, he _has_ to know, and he’s being a cheeky little asshole about it.

 

“So, how do I look?”

 

How _dare_ he. How fucking _dare he_ ask that question, when he _knows_ the fucking answer.

 

“You look-” Cody starts, struggling to come up with the right word. “You look- good. Great. Amazing.”

 

“Good-great-amazing? Well, that’s awfully kind of you. You look pretty good-great-amazing yourself, Cody” Maxx answers with another coy smile, pushing his hand through his hair and then dipping into a fucking bow. What a little shit.

 

“I- thanks.” Cody isn’t able to form full sentences anymore, apparently. He’s very aware that he’s still staring at Maxx, and he probably looks stupid as absolute sin, but he can’t bring himself to care. Maxx just looks so- he looks so-

 

“Pretty.”

 

“Huh?” Maxx, who had been walking away, says. He turns around to look back at Cody. “Did you say something?”

 

Shit. Fuck. Cody did absolutely  _ not _ just say that out loud. He did _not_.

 

“I- no,” he says even though he knows Maxx can tell when he’s lying. Maxx frowns - he definitely knows Cody is lying through his fucking teeth.

 

“It sounded like you said “pretty”, though.” He says, frown turning into a playful smile.

 

Cody is sweating, suddenly. Is Maxx flirting with him? It looks like Maxx is flirting with him, but that’s not possible, right? Maxx  _ c _ an’t be _flirting_ with him.

 

“Well, you do look. Uh. Pretty.” Cody says, mentally slapping himself because for fuck’s sake, he sounds like such an idiot.

 

But then Maxx giggles, he actually fucking  _ giggles _ , looking down at his hands and then back up at Cody through his lashes. Fuck, is he wearing mascara? His cheeks are pink, the softest blush spreading to his nose, and, yeah, Cody is absolutely having a gay crisis in the middle of the fucking studio.

 

The photograph calls them over right then, and Cody doesn’t have time to process any of the things he’s feeling, because this photoshoot is a massive deal and he needs to focus.

  
  


\--

  
  


Three hours later, they’re finally done. They have enough content for the booklet _Rock Sound_ wants to add to their bundle, and Cody is absolutely about to pass out right there in the studio. It turns out taking pictures is fucking exhausting.

 

Zach and Dan are talking with the photograph as Cody heads to the changing room to, well, change, and Maxx is nowhere to be seen.

 

Cody is in the middle of changing when the door opens and Maxx walks in, iced coffee in hand. Cody has no fucking clue where Maxx got that, because he didn’t see a coffee machine anywhere, but he doesn’t have time to process that either because Maxx walks right up to him, so close Cody can see the individual specks of glitter on Maxx’s eyes.

 

“Uh- hi,” Cody says, more confused than anything.

 

“Hey.” Maxx answers. He opens his mouth, Cody's eyes automatically dropping down to look at Maxx's lips, and his heart stops beating, because maybe, just maybe, it looks like Maxx is going to kiss him.

 

And then Maxx closes his mouth around the straw of his iced coffee, and Cody suddenly realises that, well, maybe he’s not as straight as he thought.

 

“So, you think I’m pretty?” Maxx asks after taking a sip of the coffee. He’s so bold, suddenly, and Cody is shocked to the fucking core.

 

“Yeah,” Cody answers, because he’s way past the point of denying it.

 

“Good.” Maxx says. His mouth stretches into another smile, lips shiny with gloss again. Cody wonders if he applied some before walking into the changing room, because it had definitely rubbed off during the shoot.

 

“Yeah?” Cody finds himself asking. He seems to have lost his ability to speak, dumbfounded by Maxx’s sudden confidence, by the makeup, by everything.

 

“Yeah. Now kiss me, you idiot.”

 

So Cody finally pulls himself together, threads his fingers through Maxx’s silky hair, and does just that.

 

And, right before they leave the studio, he takes one of the many lip glosses littered on the makeup artist’s table, and hands it to Maxx without a word.

  
  
Maxx wears it almost every day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank u for reading xoxo don't judge me too hard I wrote this in like two hours and I haven't read over it again


End file.
